Fri 29 March, 8.00pm. Shoplifters, cert 15
Japan 2018, 120 minutes, 15 certificate
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, starring Kriin Kiki, Lily Franky, Sosuke Ikematsu, Sakura Ando, Moemi Katayama, Mayu Matsuoka
Hi rokazu Kore-eda’s Oscar nominated, Palme d’Or winning drama is a mesmerising portrait of marginal lives in contemporary urban Japan and a heartbreakingly moving story about the nuances and complexity of family life.
Osamu is a grifter and shoplifter, combing the streets and the supermarkets of the outskirts of Tokyo, stealing food for his family. He is teaching his boy, Shota, the tricks of the trade. Noboyu steals from the laundry where she works, and Aki contributes to the household through her work in a very dodgy soft porn peep-show catering to those with a penchant for teen girls.
They all live in a couple of impossibly crowded rooms shared with Hatsue, the grandmother of the family, rooms so stuffed with packaging and detritus, random items and accumulated pilfered goods, yet with a kind of ramshackle order and a regular daily routine. It is a life lived in fear of the authorities, an existence scratched out on the margins, the constant theft a kind of ironic mirror image of the materialist consumerism of the Japanese mainstream. One evening, Osamu sees a small child apparently neglected and abused by her mother; he and Noboyu take her in, name her Juri, and make a home for her. She too happily blends into the small band of thieves – so close to her family yet rendered invisible, in spite of news coverage of her disappearance.
As we follow the lives of the family over a couple of seasons, their stories unfold, and the past reveals itself. This is a wise and melancholy but uplifting drama: it questions what a family is, what constitutes ‘dysfunctional’, and what makes for a good enough parent. Ultimately, it examines how a flawed and troubled group of people – grappling with the shadows of the past – break the law, make questionable moral choices but still rub along together, look out for each other, and cultivate healing and compassionate familial love. One of the films of 2018 this will stay with you – don’t miss it
Sun 7 April, 7.00pm. The Miseducation Of Cameron Post, cert 15
Fri 12 April, 8.00pm. Green Book, cert 12A
This is selling fast so we have been able to arrange a second screening on Saturday 13 at 8pm.
